Columbia University | School of International and Public Affairs | Environmental Coalition

ECO Newsletter: Week of February 12, 2017

We wanted to start off with a big thank you to everybody who attended our first general board meeting and happy hour!! The ECO board’s thankful faces pictured below.

ECO ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ECO Action Team

Over the last year, the environment has suffered a host of rollbacks to policies and rules meant to protect our water, air, land and climate. However, as future policymakers we do not need to wait until we have our SIPA degree to start impacting political campaigns to protect the environment: Join the ECO Action Team and start now! By partnering with environmental NGO’s in the New York area, the Action Team will hold simple advocacy actions at least once a month that won’t eat up your schedule, but will have a big impact on campaigns to protect the environment at the city, state or federal level.

Right off the bat you can get involved with our first tactic: Building support for a stronger Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI: a groundbreaking climate agreement that New York is a part of). All you have to do is copy and send the following statement of support to your professors and encourage them to sign on by this coming Friday, Feb. 17th. As students we have a unique opportunity to use the gravitas of our professors in the interest of the environment.

Please contact Mac Farrell (jmf2242@columbia.edu) and let him know which professors you have sent the appeal to and if you would like to stay involved in the ECO Action Team.

“Hi Professor,

I am one of your [insert course here] students and I’m reaching out to you with a time-sensitive request: As you may know, the extremely successful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has carbon pollution standards in place through 2020. However, Sierra Club, NRDC, Environment New York and more NGO’s and student groups are pushing Northeastern Governors–specifically Gov. Cuomo–to champion a doubling of RGGI carbon cap reductions from 2020 to 2030 (doubling the current 2.5% reduction/year to 5%).

With the Clean Power Plan in severe jeopardy, we must strengthen and expand regional climate agreements like RGGI and this is a perfect opportunity for the Columbia community to impact this campaign.

Can we count on you to please read and sign the following open letter to RGGI Governors by the February 17th (Friday) deadline?

Join us to explore the intersections of environment, state security, and human lives and livelihoods. This conference will discuss practical policy recommendations and legal frameworks to address the impacts of a changing climate on:

Teachers College is partnering again with Just Food and Farm School NYC for the annual Just Food conference, hosted at Teachers College March 12th-13th. Keynote speakers are Dr. Ricardo Salvador from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Devita Davison from FoodLab Detroit. For more details and registration online (this conference is likely to sell out quickly), see: https://jfc2017.topi.com/

JOB/INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, Internship

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School is seeking a few exceptional undergraduate and/or master’s students to serve as interns for summer 2017. Undergraduate and master’s-level interns work with the Center’s faculty director, Professor Michael Gerrard, Executive Director Michael Burger, and current fellows on a wide range of cutting-edge climate change, energy, and environmental policy issues. The Center does both domestic and international work on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Students will be assigned to projects that are policy oriented, or may work jointly with law student interns on projects with a legal component, and should receive broad exposure to the field of climate change law. Students with some background in environmental policy, energy policy and/or sustainable development are particularly encouraged to apply. Internships are full time for 8-10 weeks. Unfortunately, the Center is not able to provide funding for summer internships, but Columbia students may apply for funding through the Earth Institute’s summer grants program and we are happy to support applications for outside funding.

Imagine yourself organizing a town hall meeting on solar power. Or imagine releasing a hard-hitting research report on power plant pollution. Or picture yourself building a community coalition around clean water or fracking. Imagine building the organizational power—the funds, the membership, the activist base and so on—that it takes to keep all of this critical work going for the long haul.

All of this is what you do as an Environment America fellow. Because this is how we build the support it takes to reduce global warming pollution, create more solar and wind power, spare our parks and forests from fracking, keep our beaches, rivers and streams clean, and protect our wildlife and wild places.

Please find more information and instructions on how to apply on SIPALink.

Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Initiatives Intern (#67243)

CDP is seeking a highly-motivated individual for a part-time paid internship as part of a global team working to promote corporate leadership on climate through the We Mean Business Commit to Action campaign. The role requires an energetic and proactive individual with strong data skills and attention to detail. This is a part-time paid internship for up to 25 hours per week.

Please find more information and instructions on how to apply on SIPALink.